


Tin Soldier

by FailSafePrime



Series: Sherlock Minifics [5]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: BAMF!John, Friendship, M/M, Mini-Fic, Post-Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-23
Updated: 2012-06-23
Packaged: 2017-11-08 09:43:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/441851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FailSafePrime/pseuds/FailSafePrime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Many people forget that John was a soldier and that retired soldiers are everywhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tin Soldier

Jim Moriarty had his Criminal Empire.

Mycroft Holmes had his Government Resources.

Sherlock Holmes had his Homeless Network.

Molly Hooper had her Colleagues in Medicine.

Gregory Lestrade had his Resources as an Officer of the Law.

They remembered only in passing that John shared Colleagues in Medicine with Molly Hooper. They all forgot that John had his Military Network. They never remembered that veterans kept up with each other, introduced one another to newcomers that took their places in the war zones, went into different positions when retired, and could recognize each other in a myriad of subtle ways and passed information through one another. John had friends in New Scotland Yard who were fellow veterans. John had old school friends in the medical field in addition to the retired soldiers who worked in the field or volunteered in clinics and hospitals. John knew officers who ended up in government positions and veterans who worked for government officials and were privy to state secrets and political dramas. John helped, in what ways he could, the veterans who ended up in the streets, and many of these former soldiers interacted with other homeless folk. John knew veterans who worked on the other side of the law, looking the other way, because he knew what it was like to be so desperate that you would do anything to survive.

After the Fall, Lestrade kept his job through a combination of factors, Mycroft for one, John asking fellow veterans, obliquely, to protect the man, being another.

After the Fall, John kept an eye on Molly, who he knew would be hit hard because of her crush on Sherlock, through contacts in St. Barts. A factor that allowed him to realize that there was something fishy about the death of Sherlock Holmes, and led to the realization that Molly Hooper had been in the thick of the man’s leap.

After the Fall, a former comrade who owed John a favor joined Mycroft Holmes’ protection detail, which was how John learned that Sherlock was still alive, since the genius had gone straight to his brother’s office and had gotten spotted in passing.

After the Fall, John often had lunch with fellow veteran, Colonel Sebastian Moran, who had taught John how to shoot, and had been the one to warn John when ever Moriarty’s attention turned toward him rather than Sherlock, after all, Sherlock had the brainpower to counter Moriarty, and John didn’t. They often commiserated over the quirks of their respective geniuses, both of who had loved their precious soldiers in their own unique ways, whom both soldiers loved in turn in their separate ways.

After the Fall, it was a homeless veteran who warned John that Sherlock was returning to Baker Street. It was a homeless veteran that John sent to Sebastian Moran that Sherlock was in London and gunning for him. It was a homeless veteran who carried back Moran’s reply, “Watson, old boy, I wish you all the happiness in the world.”

After the Return of Sherlock Holmes, John would go out and visit Moran in prison, because let’s face it, veterans stick together, and John and Moran were former soldiers who had the ill luckgood fortune to fall in with geniuses. That one came out better than the other didn’t matter. And if John could get favors out of people to help Sherlock on his cases, Sherlock certainly didn’t complain. He most certainly didn’t complain if John came back from the pubs with gossip about goings on in Mycroft’s office and with details about Mycroft’s budding relationship with Lestrade, though in fact, he deleted the latter information almost as soon as it hit his mental hard drive.

After four consecutive incidents of itching powders in his underthings and bedclothes, an incident of chili paste in his toothpaste, and two incidents of laxatives in his tea and food after upsetting Sherlock, Mycroft trod carefully around John Watson and eyed the veterans who had, over time, made up the lion’s share of his staff warily.

If Sherlock reacted to the discovery that his faithful blogger had taken his brother’s place as the most dangerous man in London with a damn good shag, well that was no one’s business, now was it?

~*~

End

**Author's Note:**

> Most people never take into account that there are retired soldiers literally everywhere. Considering the nature of Sherlock's work and the fact that John follows him around, there is no doubt that at some point, they would encounter former soldiers, or as was the case in The Hounds of Baskerville, current soldiers, and as a soldier himself, John would likely get more out of them than Sherlock, who at first glance, is a very privileged civilian. It's something of a cliche that soldiers, even retired soldiers, never really leave the forces, and band together when something happens, so surely, John would have support beyond Mrs Hudson, Lestrade, and Mycroft, yes? This was generally my take on the matter.


End file.
